>> tonight, getting ready to go one on one. ( cheers ) candidates obama and romney hunker down to practice for their first debate in just five days. a crime-ridden city fires its police force. tony guida reports on why camden, new jersey, is making this dramatic move. a bumper crop of bad apples, thanks to fickle weather. manuel bojorquez talks to orchard owners counting up their losses. and new meaning to the phrase "a dog's life." michelle miller takes us inside a new luxury pet hotel. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news." >> reid: good evening. i'm chip reid. of the 38 days remaining until

election day, the most important of all may be this coming wednesday when president obama and mitt romney meet in denver for the first of three debates. the stakes are sky high, especially for mr. romney. running mate paul ryan made the case for a mitt romney presidency today in the toss-up state of new hampshire. >> we have got to stop spending money we don't have. >> reporter: vice president joe biden campaigned in battled ground florida, where he argued that the obama administration inherited trillion-dollar deficits from the bush administration. >> they put two wars on a credit card, not paying a penny, not paying a penny. >> reid: meanwhile be president obama and mitt romney were hunkered down today cramming for next week's debate showdown. both sides are working hard to lower expect aches by praising their opponents. a romney adviser says the president has the advantage as one of the most talented political communicators in modern history. the obama campaign says romney

has the agent having debated about two dozen times during the republican primary campaign. >> both of these individuals are had ample experience debating but governor romney has had more practice recently and practice helps. >> kathleen hall jamieson kathls the nonpartisan annenberg center. >> the challenger has the opportunity to establish he is competent to stand up and hold his own against the president of the united states. a challenger who accomplishes that in effect wins the first debate. >> reporter: jamieson says both candidates are hoping for a big moment that voters will remember. >> joe the plumber. >> reporter: like john mccain's invitation of an ohio plumber who questioned mr. obama's tax plan four years ago. >> in the third debate, john mccain repeatedly alluded to joe the plumber, and the allegation that barack obama #-r would share the wealth. >> reid: jamieson says that gave mccain a boost in the polls, but as mccain later learned, even a memorable debate

moment carries a candidate only so far. the live tv audience for the first obama-romney debate is expected to be about 60 million people. that's roughly half the number expected to vote in the election. the combination of shrinking finances and rising crime is forcing drastic change on camden, new jersey, a small city just across the delaware from philadelphia. tony guida has the details of a reorganization plan that would take veteran cops off the beat permanently. >> reporter: if camden had its own postcards, the picture would look look a lot like this-- police responding to the scene of a crime. with just 77,000 residents and 1500 violent crimes and 48 murders this year alone, camden has been called one of the most dangerous cities in america. now, in an unprecedented move, the hard-pressed city is planning to fire its police department. >> our hope is to start something that makes sense, to start to diminish crime in a way that people say, "oh, wait a

minute. it's not the same old camden." >> reporter: ian leonard says what camden needs is more police on the street. under the union contract, the city can't afford the 273 police officers it has now, so the plan is to replace them with a larger, nonunion department. leonard says for the same price. >> we have a heroine epidemic second to none, not only in south new jersey, in new jersey and we need to fight that. >> reporter: and the way to do that is more police. >> yes and deploy them in a way that makes sense. >> no, it's not going to work. >> reporter: community activists can corhas lived in camden for 20 years. she believes replacing the existing police force is not going to make the street any safer. >> there are no jobs in the city so how are you going to stop crime if we don't provide anything to lessen the crime. >> reporter: john williamson agrees with cortes. an 18-year veteran of the camden police department, he's the president of the city's

fraternal order of police. >> you can never put a price on public safety, and you can never put a price on experience. it's not only dangerous for the new officers, but it's also dangerous for the residents. >> reporter: officials expect to approve the new department in november and hope to have it mobilized by next april. until then, this desperate city must muddle thiew with its undermanned and over-matched police department. tony guida, cbs news, camden, new jersey. >> reid: massachusetts officials are struggling with a crime lab scandal that put more than 1,000 drug convictions in doubt. at the center of the controversy, a loan chemist who tested more than 60,000 samples in a nine-year career. elaine quijano reports from boston. >> could you give us one explanation as to why you did this. >> reporter: according to prosecutors, annie dookhan admitted to altering or faking the test results of drugs. one instance involved fake drugs on a suspect. >> so they were negative on the

street, positive when misdookhan tested them and when they were retested they were negative. >> reporter: dookhan's coworkers had their suspicions, detailed in this 100-page report by the massachusetts state police. one chemist said. dookhan's work has called into question the cases of 1100 people currently serving time. more will likely be reopened. to handle them, the state is setting up special courts where whys can run longer sessions to work through the backlog. >> it's incalculable for the harm it's done to the integrity of the criminal justice system. >> reporter: defense attorney bernard grossberg. what about some of the folks who do have rap sheet, who do have a history of criminal records, what about the idea of them walking the street here in massachusetts? >> well, we don't like some of these guys getting released.

that's what the law requires. and we will do it because we're the commonwealth of massachusetts, and we try to do the right thing. >> reporter: grossberg says what happened in massachusetts should prompt other states to examine their own labs. >> i think in our system, our criminal justice system, there is nothing worse than an unfair, unconstitutional conviction. >> reporter: in dookhan is convicted, she could face more than 20 years in prison. elaine quijano, cbs news, boston. >> reid: a new report says drug ask alcohol abuse is on the rise among amtrak employees. among other findings the report says mechanics and signal operators tested positive at four time the rate of employees at other railroads last year. amtrak management said it will step up random drug testing. a washed out in drought-ridden west texas. rain continued to fall today over part of the lone star state. up to five inche inches have fan

the last 24 hours, swamping street, strandingars and drivers. water was four feet deep in this swrairses. it's being called carmageddon, the sequel, in los angeles. a 10-mile stretch of the nation's busiest freeway is closed to traffic. workers are demolishing then rebuilding ia bridge over the busy 405 freeway. the roadway is scheduled to reopen before rush hour on monday. last year, in phase one of the project, officials warned of monumental traffic jams. drivers steered clear as they did today. coming up on tonight's cbs evening news, guatanamo's last western detainee is moved to canada.

in syria today with a new casualty in the conflict. rebels launched another offensive to retake the largest city, aleppo, from government forces and today the fighting destroyed one of syria's historic treasures as aleppo's ancient market, or souk, went up in flames. the medieval marketplace a maze of passageways connecting shops once looked like this. the youngest prisoner and last westerner held at the u.s. military prison at dwaub was returned to his native canada today. omar khadr will sterve what is left of his sentence at a maximum security jail inon teario. the transfer deal was reached about a year ago, but canada's conservative government only acted today. in his decade behind bars at guatanamo, omar khadr was an unlikely poster boy for the war on terror. what has made his case so controversial is his age. he was only 15 years old when he was captured by u.s. forces in

afghanistan. >> the time he was brought in, he was just a child. the u.s. did not treat him in the way that international law applies, and that's what really ising significant about this particular case. >> reid: under a plea deal before a military tribunal in 2010, he pleaded guilty to kill a u.s. soldier in afghanistan and in return was transferred to canada to serve out his eight-year sentence. until now, canada's government refused to accept him. >> omar khadr was born in canada and is a canadian citizen. as a canadian citizen he has a right to enter canada after the completion of his sentence. >> reporter: the khadr family has been called canada's first family of canada. omar khadr was born in canada but spent much of his childhood in pakistan and afghanistan. his father was a notorious al qaeda financier and associate of osama bin laden. under canadian law, khadr, who is now 26, could be eligible for

parole next summer. the defense department says 166 detainees remain at guatanamo bay, down from a high of 685 in 2003. it was literally a matter of life or death for the crew of a shrimp trawler that was flung on to a rocky stretch of mexico's pacific coast by tropical storm norman yesterday. despiting suive that frequently swamped the boat, rope lines were fastened to rescuers on the shore and all eight crew members were eventually brought to safety. next up, the campaign gender gap and a tale of two female voters.

weeks until the election, mitt romney is working hard to

improve his trailing poll numbers among female voters by focusing on their economic concerns. sharyl attkisson profiles two women with very different takes on the campaign. >> dear daughter, welcome to america. your share of obama's debt is over $50,000. >> reporter: in an ad released earlier this week, the romney campaign spoke directly to women, pointing to the economy as their key concern. penny zakrzewski agrees growing debt is her greatest worry. >> when the market crashed, we ended up having two more kids and staying in a home that is too small for us. >> reporter: a stay-at-home mom with three kids she plans to vote for mitt romney. to win virginia he needs more women like her. a recent cbs news poll shows the gender gap between romney and the president is widening, while romney holds a six-point lead among men, president obama has a 12-point advantage with women. polls also show women are more interested than men in issues impacting their pocketbook.

political expert deirdre continentive says this election will come down to one demographic. >> it's going to be single women voters who are really going to be the decision pivot point in this election. >> reporter: single women, like kenny barnwell. she supports president obama. >> i kind of want to vote for the person i feel is fighting for me. >> reporter: two years after losing her job as a marketing specialist, barnes is still looking for work and she doesn't think romney understands people like her. >> he wouldn't be able to relate to me or a single parent or a person that doesn't know where their next dollar is going to come from. >> reporter: even zakrzewski has not heard enough about how romney would fix the economy if elected president. >> that's one reason i'm looking forward to debate. i'm hoping mitt romney will be able to articulate what his plans are. i would like to hear more specifics. >> reporter: both women says health care is also important to them.

they will be listening for details when the candidates debated with for the first time. >> reid: former "new york times" publisher arthur ochs sulzberger died earlier today after a long illness. he ran the family-owned newspaper from 1963 to 1992 when he passed the job on to his son. he was perhaps best known for refusing white house demands to stop publication of the "pentagon papers" in 1971, a case the supreme court decided in the paper's favor. arthur ochs sulzberger was 86.

u.s. produces about 225 million bushels of apples, but this year's harvest is expected to be under 200 million bushels. among the reasons is bad weather

in north carolina, a top apple producer. manuel bojorquez traveled to the orchards. >> reporter: sonya stepp hollingsworth has been working on her family apple orchard in hendersonville, north carolina, for almost 40 years. this year has been anything but sweet. how bad is this harvest? >> we've lost 90%. last year we probably had around 14,000 bushels in the orchard. we might have 1400 bushels this year. >> reporter: the season went south in mid-april. there was a very mild winter and then a cold freeze swept in for just a four-hour period. the frost came when the apples were at a delicate stage, and the trees started blossoming too early. how many acres do you have? >> i farm 140 to 50 acheez of apples and 10 acres of peaches. >> reporter: just down the road from sonya hollingsworth farm is kenny barnwell. >> this apple should be like

this. you couldn't make juice out of this apple. this apple doesn't even have value as juice. >> reporter: nothing. >> nothing. >> reporter: barn well usually has so many apples he has to store them in this facility which holds 1500 bins or 3 million apples. >> these are all empty. there is nothing in any of these boxes. >> reporter: >> reporter: they would usually be full. >> this will be the worst i have ever seen. >> reporter: crop insurance will cover about 25% of her losses. she's trying to sell the remaining crop as fast as she can. >> you know, there's going to be feeing. you know, there's going to be drought. but because you love it, you keep going, so we just keep going and doing it. see the difference? >> reporter: sonya hollingsworth farm is expected to lose $$200,000 this year. she says if they have another harvest like this one next year, she will have to borrow money to stay in business. manuel bojorquez, cbs news,

hendersonville, north carolina. >> reid: now to a different fruit, a much larger one, the pumpkin. and yes, botanically speaking, it is a fruit. >> i'm back, baby! >> reid: history was made friday in rhode island at a giant pumpkin weigh-off. ron wallace became the first person ever to grow a one-ton pumpkin. it took a forklift to put it on the scale, regs 2009 pound. shattering old world record set just one day before. wallace receive a $10,000 prize for growing his great pumpkin. coming up on tonight's cbs evening news, opening day at a canine grand hotel.

of historic places has added to its list a cemetery in the new york city suburb of hartsdale.

it's the hartsdale canine cemetary, founded in 1896, the first pet cemetery ever to earn such recognition. the cemetery is the final resting place for some 75,000 pets, not to mention 700 pet owners who chose to be buried with them. roughly 20 miles to the south, some lucky dogs are living it up in a brand new hotel that caters to every canine whim. michelle miller takes us on a guided tour. >> reporter: at this week's launch party, throngs of celebrity gaysers came out to rub paws with some special guests of honor. d. pet hotel officially opened friday in new york, the third of a chain bilge itself as a five-star pet resort. here, canines are referred to as clients. their owners, the more p.c. appropriate, parents. i imagine with 50 dogs it's loud in here. >> it can get loud in here. >> reporter: kerry brown runs this location which can accommodate 50 pets if standard

suites that range from $79 a day-- >> at bedroom with a doggy bed, an orthopedic dog bed. >> reporter:... to 200. this is the ubersuite. >> we change all bedding and basically we just create this to feel like a bedroom. >> reporter: and it does. there's a full-sized bed, a 42-inch flat screen, and, yes, even cable tv. isn't this a little over the top? >> never! these are our babies! hi! >> reporter: alissa cruz launched the brand in west hollywood four years ago during the dog days of the recession. afraid to leave her doggies snickers and 26 in just any kennel. >> i searched everywhere and saw there was no type of luxury doggy boarding. i was like wait a second. my dog sleeps in my bed. we want to make sure note only the dogs are having fun and a good time but the owners feel safe. >> reporter: here, dogs will

spend most of the day socializing in their own indoor doggy park. there's a gym, complete with treadmills, and a spa, where groomers offer paw-di-cures. >> this is nail polish made just for dogs. >> reporter: who even knows if it registers with man's best friend. you like the rooms here? you do? the pet hotel is playing to their two-legged companions. is it what your dog is accustomed to? >> they're fairly pampered, yeah. >> reporter: so if you don't want your dog to rough it in a kennel, there are two things you should know. dogs with bad at attitudes are not welcome here, and while the accommodations may appeal to people, no humans are allowed. >> reid: and that is the cbs evening news. i'm chip reid in new york. good night.

a fight between a richmond city councilman the lunches are from a bay area mayor targeted someone and tensions that his business on fire. how hot will it get in the bay area it is expected to,,,,